“I’ve been lucky enough to use the developer beta of macOS Sierra 10.12 since shortly after it was introduced at WWDC 2016,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld. “Because it is still in development not every feature works just yet, but what I’ve seen shows Sierra is in good shape for an OS that will be made available as a public beta in July, for full introduction in Fall.”
“Apple’s OS isn’t just one operating system, but several: Macs, iPhones, iPads, Apple TV and the Watch, all of these are built on the same basic OS, and Apple’s made sure that each one of its connected devices work well alongside each other,” Evans writes. “One excellent example of how Apple how to make complementary connected products that work logically together is the new AutoUnlock feature, which lets an Apple Watch user open his or her Mac as soon as they are within a few feet of their computer.”
“Flagship macOS Sierra improvements that work well now include: Siri, big Photos improvements, iCloud Desktop/Documents, tabs support in many apps as well as the system’s new optimized storage capabilities,” Evans writes. “Accessed using the new Siri icon to the right of the Finder in the Dock, the Siri icon in the Menu or using the Fn-Space shortcut, Siri on Sierra does everything you can do on an iPhone, and adds a load of commands you’ll use on a Mac (just ask Siri what you can ask).”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: One thing, among many, that struck us so far: Photos on the Mac is quickly becoming a very powerful tool.
Yawn. Always play stuff. The Mac is no longer a work device.
Oh well. Back to Wintel…
You make no sense Amigo .
back to windows, where majority of wintel user are afraid to upgrade to windows 10 and do not want the upgrade.
“MacDailyNews Take: One thing, among many, that struck us so far: Photos on the Mac is quickly becoming a very powerful tool.”
And as “fast” as the old iPhoto 🙁
last time I checked, Lightroom was not exactly a speed demon either, what are you comparing it to anyway?
On my comment I compared Photos to iPhoto.
For one simple reason: the new Photos was largely marketed as a completely new App, faster, written from the ground up, as opposed to the old bloated and slow iPhoto.
On my system, admittedly a humble Mac mini with 16GB of RAM and lots of free space on the internal storage drive, the new Photos isn’t and never was at any point in time (even after a brand new formatting and re-installation of OS X) faster than the older, tired and bloated iPhoto.
While my library with 31,717 photos isn’t tiny, it should be a good database for Photos to prove it is faster. But it is slower than iPhoto.
I find that other promises of better performance failed too using the same system. For instance, the much hyped RAM memory compression im Mavericks (I can’t remember the correct name of this technology at the moment) that promised more free RAM and better system performance. Mavericks on my system was always slower than the previous OS.
Of course software gets more complex and heavier over time and new hardware is required from time to time. But I don’t like when something is marketed as a faster product and in reality it is not.
PR: With respect my friend, I get what you’re saying but Photos is lightening fast on my old 27″ iMac with a recently installed 256Gb SSD.
I am not a dev and know nothing of how apps actually work, but I did look in Show Package Contents (as I have in Aperture and iPhoto) and it’s the exact same structure. It’s why you can import old Libraries so easily.
Looks a lot like Apple simply gutted and optimized the code, stripped out features, gave the UI a tweak and changed the name. Boom, ‘faster’ app. Next year we’ll be treated to star ratings and perhaps even the ability to sort by image name. Whoohoo.
JeanLuc,
Thanks for your comment.
There are some things you can do hardware-wise to speed up software. Installing a SSD is one of them. But I was comparing the performance of both Apps on the *same* hardware. And Photos isn’t faster than iPhoto as promised by the marketing. And, on the same (unchanged) hardware I was able to use Photos on a fresh OS X installation.
My Photos isn’t faster than iPhoto. Sure, if I upgrade my Mac I will get a faster Photos, but this doesn’t address the issue.
Again, thanks for your comment.
Regards.
Indeed my friend. I feel the same way.
My entire perspective is as a professional photographer, having used and loved using both iPhoto and more importantly Aperture.
I admit I’m still smarting from Apple’s snub of our profession and while I still use and love Apple gear I cannot in all good conscience recommend Apple to anyone else. Apple could not possibly care less about our needs. The consumer is their focus now. Pros and power users can jump in the lake as far as they’re concerned.
Will be interested in what they do with Finder.
Maybe they’ve added improvements made possible with the new Apple File System.
Siri on a Mac? I don’t like it on the iPhone. But in a few years, it could be like talking with HAL 9000.
Hal, open the poo bay doors..
Sorry Maxbay, I can’t do that. You did nor provide the correct pass phrase.. Good luck with that…
Photos is a good place to keep my iPhone images and pics from the web, but I don’t think I’d call it “powerful”.
iPhoto was far more flexible and Aperture was a joy.
In this next version of Photos Apple has added back in features that were present in both the older apps, and that’s a good thing.
Completely agree.
Agree….I wasn’t aware of any changes to Photos in the new OS. They didn’t talk about it, were there any?
Yes:
“Live Photo Editing and RAW Processing with Core Image
iOS 10 and macOS 10.12 brings a powerful set of new APIs to work with many types of photos. Explore using Core Image to process RAW image files from many popular cameras and recent iOS devices…”
Again, not being a dev I have no idea what this means but it seems that Photos will have new capabilities in the future. Including RAW processing.
Unlock with Apple Watch! I want that to work with the iPhone too! I put in for that a few years ago now!